The age grading updates for all races reported to 6th May are shown on the attached document.

Four members have already qualified for the annual Pentathon Cup competition by competing in five events of different distances. Another 9 members have competed in four qualifying events, and many more have completed three qualifying events.

The Pentathon Cup competition ends on 31st August so there is still plenty of time for members to complete a full set of five events and receive a club certificate.

The road running season is now in full swing after a great cross-country season for many club members. Our thanks to Richard and Jeanette for their endeavours on our behalf throughout the KFL series. Now to catch up with the season so far…

Since January much of the road racing being undertaken is very much being dictated by the upcoming marathons at Brighton, London and elsewhere, so apologies if this tends to be a little marathon-centric.
The Canterbury 10-mile is always a popular race to kick off the year and the 2017 edition was no exception, despite being a very cold & misty day. Maria Heslop finished 1st lady and Claire Day a creditable 3rd lady home. David Sampson was next home closely followed by Sarah Shepheard, returning to something like full fitness after a lengthy injury. Pete Buckingham was the next home and still under the 70-minute mark for the full race distance. Emma Hollands – despite feeling under the weather – was next in, followed by Sam Parrett, Kate Cole (getting back to her pre-injury speed), Paul Mace, Caroline Richards, Fiona Buckingham, Alice Truett, Vanessa Markham, Keeley Hoad and Lorraine Shepherd.

February: The month kicked of with the Ashford & District 10k race, held on the same day as the KFL meet at Rough Common so PWAC entrants were somewhat limited. Maria was there though, finishing top female in 37m 01s with Tina Oldershaw also present, finishing 4th female. Chloe Keen had a great race finishing in 53m 27s, ahead of David Cogle, 55m 33s and John Markham, 62m 39s.

Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon was the next port of call, pushing up the mileage a notch (and also the temperature and sunlight levels from Canterbury, thankfully). It’s a difficult race to pace successfully, with major downhill sections in the first few miles and all the uphill effort coming in the second half of the race. None of that made too much difference to Colin Tricker (who finished in 13th place in 1:17.13), Maria (1st lady), Steve Chalklen (42nd overall), Tina Oldershaw (3rd lady) or new (and very welcome) member Clive Gigney, rounding out the top 100 finishers. Just outside the 90-minute mark were David, Emma and Elise Rendall, with Sam on 1hr 40, Steve Sutton at 1hr 43 and Ian Sutherland and Nick Brown in the 1hr 47 minute bracket. Jane Dew was next home with Vanessa Hollamby a few minutes later, the last of the sub-2 hour club entrants. Vanessa Markham, Diana Tilston, and Paul Nightingale also completed this challenging race in good time.

On the same day as the half marathon, the Tenterden 5-mile race took place for those less masochistic runners. John Tolhurst aquitted himself well with a time of 36m 11s, finishing 26th placed male. Duncan was the only other male club member in action finishing 44th male in 39m 24s. Chloe Keen as the sole PWAC lady present was rewarded with 22nd in the female race in a time of 42m 48s.

The very next week a few club members took part in the Headcorn Half Marathon. Emma was 5th lady home in 1h31m15s, with Becky Morrish a few seconds behind in 6th in her first race at this distance. Becky’s focus is firmly on her Triathlon exploits later in the year and we all wish her luck with that. Caroline Richards and Duncan Riordhan also competed and completed.

In March came the two longest pre-marathon races, the Thanet 20-miler and Lydd 20. Steve Chalklen deserves a special mention as not only was he the only PWAC entrant at Thanet, finishing 9th, but also completed the Lydd race 7 days later, in 20th place. Also at Lydd on a gloriously still and dry day, were Lukas Bates (24th), Clive Gigney (41st), David Sampson (52nd), Elise Rendall (3rd lady, 1st in age category) and Emma Hollands (4th lady, 1st in age category). Both ladies took several minutes off their previous PBs for the course as did a few of the men present, testament to their hard work in training but no doubt also aided by the superb conditions. Great times were also posted by Darren Hendley, Stephen Sutton, Ian Sutherland, Vanessa Markham and Lorraine Shepheard. It’s looking like good progress towards marathon goals for all.

Three other athletes were also at Lydd on the same day but competing in the Half Marathon. Sarah Shepheard managed to finish in 1hr 28m 57s, crossing the line 3rd lady, despite not feeling very well just before the start (and during the race) and very nearly pulling out. Her attentions are also on the goal of competing in her first Ironman 70.3 in Barcelona… on her birthday!… Duncan Riordhan finished Lydd in 118th position overall and Melissa Ferns was 203rd overall, completing the club line-up on the day.

Apologies to anyone who’s results are not included here. I will endeavour to catch up next month.

Also taking place over the last couple of months has been the first of the new Club Grand Prix events.
First 2 Months results are on the website. The remaining events can also be found on the club website.
March Malling parkrun qualifying weekends have been extended to include April 1st as the previous weeks PW Half Marathon bag-packing used up one of those available weekends for some.

Kent Grand Prix
After 3 events the ladies team are in 1st place (despite having no entrants in the Thanet 20). The mens team are in 16th place. Individually in their own age categories we have 4 athletes in the to 20 of their age groups. Tina Oldershaw, Emma Hollands, Elise Rendall and David Sampson. The next event is our own half marathon where we have a good turnout of members.

SEEA Road Relays
Despite the best effort of our team captains, we have been unable to field teams this year, primarily due to age restriction of our younger athletes and a long injury list. We will try again next year.

Mid Kent Road Relays and Beckenham Road Relays
We are still waiting to hear if and when these events are going ahead. We will update you as soon as we know.

Bournemouth Running Weekend
When we sent out our questionnaire, this was by far the most popular idea for a club away day or weekend. The event takes place on the first weekend in October. Saturday has children’s races and 5k and 10k options. Sunday has Half and Full Marathon options. Please let any member of the road running group know if you are interested, we have a volunteer to research hotels etc. When we have an idea of numbers who may want an overnight stay.

MOB Match with Hastings AC
We have been contacted by Hastings AC to see if we are interested in taking them on within their Saturday morning park run. This will mean a 9am start in Hastings. Again if you are interested, please let us know so we can gauge numbers.

Following the success of the 2016 event, in which we had some of Great Britain’s finest athletes complete this iconic course in fast times, this is your chance to take in London’s famous landmarks. The event is not until May 2017 but book now in order to avoid disappointment.

Just in time before the final fixture on Sunday, here are the Grand Prix tables with the Tonbridge Half results added.

The men’s team competition is ridiculously close. Tunbridge Wells have a 9 point lead on the board, but will lose 16 points more than Orpington in the ‘lowest score drop’; my assessment therefore is that Orpington’s virtual lead of 20 points (before Tonbridge Half, see below) has been cut to just 7. This is approximately 0.2% of a season’s total points score for a leading club.

Dartford Road Runners still have a lead in the women’s team competition, but with other clubs queuing up to challenge if they slip up.

It was very encouraging to have a turnout of 20 club members for the first race of the 2016 Kent Grand Prix series.We will recieve the official individual and team Grand Prix standings in due course but can safely say the

ladies team have started with a clear win.

The next race in the series is the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon on 21st February a local race for which we hope to see an even bigger turnout.This race is very popular so if you intend to enter do so now as there are usually no entries available on the day.

There is a Monday max 10 mile Monday evening run starting at 7pm and on non racing Sundays a long Sunday morning out and back run starting at 8-30am. Both runs start in Tonbridge.(contact any member of the Road Runners Group for further details.)